[Alleria]

An archive search doesn't turn up much, so here goes:

does anyone else think that the KSC-35s are bass heavy? As in, *very* bass heavy? I just received my pair, so these aren't broken-in or anything, but initial impressions are that they are quite bass-heavy indeed, almost like a caricature of the Grado type sound. Midrange seems recessed, although not unpleasantly so, and it does seem to do quite well overall at soundstaging, even compared with the HD-600 + Clou Red or the Ety 4S I have on hand for direct comparison. (As well as a pair of nOrh 9.0 marble and a single ACI Titan II LE sub, for that matter). Highs are slightly fuzzy, but I'm not complaining at this price point, especially for the utilization I have in mind anyway.

FWIW, the amp right now is the headphone section of my Marantz PM-17 integrated, which tends somewhat to the warm side, but is actually remarkably good overall.

That said, do any of these impressions seem familiar? I assume that there will be some changes after break-in, but hopefully the process will be short and fairly painless, etc?

 

[dhwilkin]

Yup, I think that's a decent description of the KSC-35s. Due to their warm, punchy, forgiving nature, they make a good match w/ your typical soundcard, and sources & amps that tend to the neutral or analytical side. When I use my Panasonic 480 pcdp w/ them, which is on the warm side, things can get a bit too fuzzy and bassy. Hehe, you should try them out of a Max... you might be surprised what they're actually capable of.

 

[Ebonyks]

Yeah, i've noticed that they loose some of their bassy-ness when they're burned in though

 

[Alleria]

Thanks for the confirmation -- hopefully the bass will get deeper and smoothen out with time.

 

[Ebonyks]

If you want to deepen the base, cut a hole in the middle of the plastic grill (look up this mod), it adds to the low-lows quite a bit

 

[LTUCCI1924]

Alleria
HI: I have the koss-35 and the potrapros and to tame the bass and free the mids and the highs I cut a round hole about the size of a quarter or a little smaller in the pads and it no longer is fuzzy. The koss-35 or portapro are great cans but free the sound by cutting the hole in the pads. If you mess up radio shack sells replacement pads that are better than the ones that come with the cans for 3.00

 

[Alleria]

I've been poking around the Fixup site, and have simply followed the tweak to remove the pads altogether. Because of the shape of my ears, I don't find the bare plastic to be uncomfortable -- and yeah, without the pads, the highs/mids are more prominent at the same volume, balancing out with the bass, which is nice.

Perhaps I'll order up some 75-ohm resistors with my roommate's Percy Audio order and do the resistor mod to further flatten out the response.

 

[a1leyez0nm3]

i tried them without the pads and they were unbearably muddy....

 

[pedxing]

Mud is good.